Distributed Bucket Rendering in 3ds Max

The process of rendering an image is extremely intensive on the computer processor and high quality images require a great deal of time to complete. The mental ray rendering engine has been included with 3ds Max for several releases now and it effectively utilizes multiple processors within the computer during rendering, as indicated by the multiple buckets shown in the rendered frame window while rendering. But even with these improvements, it is frequently not enough for a production environment that requires higher level renderings in a shorter period of time.

Fortunately, mental ray comes with a tool called distributed bucket rendering that can help. Distributed bucket rendering functions similarly to Backburner in that it spreads the load of the rendering across multiple computers. It differs in that there are no external client or management executables to load and configure and unlike Backburner, it can easily distribute portions of a single rendered image. The use of distributed bucket rendering allows you to use up to 8 additional processors to render a single image. The result will add between 8 and 32 buckets to your screen as you render depending on the types of computers and processors available to you. Just like Backburner,

Setting up distributed bucket rendering is quite simple.

1. Open the Render Setup dialog and click on the Processing tab.



2. Scroll down and open the Distributed Bucket Rendering roll out.



3. Check the box marked Distributed Rendering to turn the feature on.
4. Click the Add button and add the IP address of the computer that will be used as a satellite node.



5. After entering all of the IP addresses you can use, select those to be used for the current rendering from the list in the Distributed Bucket Rendering roll out. This allows you to use only specific computers at a given time, rather than all of them.

Some things to be aware of with distributed bucket rendering:

• There is overhead processing time involved in controlling the distributed bucket rendering satellites so the speed gain is not directly proportional to the number of processors assigned.
• On smaller renderings, distributed bucket rendering can actually take longer than using a single computer.
• Distributed bucket rendering distributes the final gather pass as well as the raytrace pass.
• Distributed bucket rendering will seize all the resources of the satellite computers so it’s not something you want to assign to another computer that is regularly used.
• Distributed bucket rendering can increase computer network traffic significantly and the use of an isolated network is advised if the satellites are dedicated machines.

Distributed bucket rendering is an easily configured tool that can greatly improve rendering times and is a feature already included in 3ds Max since the advent of mental ray. Using it will provide you with more time to evaluate and improve your final rendered output and decrease the amount of time spent waiting for things to finish rendering.